Wauconda water project hits next stage

For northern Lake County communities looking to get Lake Michigan water, it's time to go back to the well, so to speak.

In the next phase, municipalities must approve about $25,000 for engineering firm Applied Technologies to conduct a cost analysis study and submit a proposal to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

If they're successful, the state agency will allocate to them some of their Lake Michigan water supply. If they're not, the project is dead in the water.

"Until we get to the point where we know we can get an allocation, we'd be spinning our wheels," said Wauconda Director of Public Works David Geary. "By far, it's not the end of the process."

With Lake County in the lead, Antioch, Lindenhurst, Lake Villa, Wauconda, Old Mill Creek and Fox Lake either already have approved or likely will approve the money for the study.

John Callan, the Applied Technologies project manager for what is now being referred to as the Northern Lake County Water Planning Group, said the county and Old Mill Creek already have OK'd their funds. Wauconda likely will do so tonight at its village board meeting.

"If you go in individually, it won't always work," Callan said. "You have to kind of go in as a group."

Long Grove and Hawthorn Woods, which only recently expressed interest in Lake Michigan water, have yet to finalize their plans. Both approved initial studies that already have been completed by the other municipalities.

"Each community has to make same case … to demonstrate to (the IDNR) that Lake Michigan water is the most cost-efficient," Lake County Public Works Director Peter Kolb said. "Just asking for it is not going to be enough."

Kolb said if the municipalities can show it's cheaper for them to get water from Lake Michigan, their chances of being given the water allocation are stronger.

Callan estimates this phase of the project will take about a year.

"We're working toward to do it a little faster than that," he said. "It's a fairly major undertaking."

In studies already conducted by Applied Technologies, the core Northern Lake County Water Planning Group communities found it would cost them about a total of $178 million to bring Lake Michigan water to the area.

If and when the same communities get the state's approval for allocation, officials say they can then start planning how to bring lake water to their area and how to fund the project.

"If we get approval for an allocation ... then the big decisions get to be made," Geary said.